First class cabins are on their way out at many international airlines, but the few carriers that keep them are constantly upgrading them, in order to differentiate the product from increasingly spacious business class seating. The latest entrant in the first class competition is Emirates’ 777 fleet. And this comes on the heels of Singapore Air’s big launch of its luxury first class suites last week.

At the Dubai Air Show this week, the carrier rolled out new cabin designs for its 777s, turning to Mercedes-Benz and its S-Class cars for inspiration. The renovations will cover all three classes on the planes, and will include upgraded entertainment systems as well. Emirates’ first new-look 777s are due to start flying between Dubai-Geneva and Dubai-Brussels next month, but it will take a long time to refit the existing fleet: The carrier noted that it currently has 165 777s, and 164 more on order from Boeing. (On most US routes, Emirates flies its big Airbus A380, so US-based travelers will likely only see this on beyond-Dubai flights.)

The new first class cabin has six individual suites in a 1-1-1 layout, dropping a suite from the current 1-2-1 configuration. Suites offer 40 square feet of space, with privacy provided by a sliding door. The fully-reclining seat is 78 inches long and up to 30 inches wide. The seat and its components are fully adjustable, and the middle suites come with “virtual windows,” giving occupants real-time views from outside the aircraft. (Nice touch!) Suites also have 32-inch HD video screens, adjustable mood lighting, temperature controls, minibar, a full-length wardrobe and “chandelier-style lights.”

No word yet on fares, but for comparison purposes, SFO-Dubai round trip in first class currently runs about $15,000. In business class, it’s about $8,000. Economy class is about $900.

First class suite made up for bedtime. (Image: Emirates)

Emirates’ new 777 business class cabin has fully-flat seats that offer 72 inches of pitch in a 2-3-2 layout- nice but it means that some unlucky passengers may still get stuck in a middle seat. This seems odd for the likes of Emirates since most of the newer business class sections from other global carriers have done away with middle seats in favor of all-aisle access.

My experience flying in a middle seat on Emirates in business class was actually not all that bad. Why? Because it was an overnight flight and I felt quietly isolated there in the middle with no bumps from other passengers or service carts. I enjoyed looking up at the ceiling and seeing stars 🙂

Anyway, business class seat controls and inflight entertainment systems have touchscreen controls, and seats provide individual lighting controls, privacy panels between seats, an area to stow shoes, a footrest and a minibar (yes, seriously).

Emirates new economy class has the despised, shoulder-rubbing 10-across seating in a 3-4-3 configuration— something that United has taken a lot of heat for installing on its new B777-300s that include its new Polaris business class seats, and more recently on its B777-200s. On the bright side, Emirates says that its economy seats will have “up to 33 inches of pitch” which is more generous than average, but not all seats will get that much.

Here are more photos of Emirates new cabin designs:

Also, check out the cool and immersive interactive experience including 360 views here.

First class suites have sliding doors. (Image: Emirates)

First class suite with seat upright for dining. (Image: Emirates)

The new business class cabin for Emirates’ 777s- note the middle seats. (Image: Emirates)

How you gonna keep ’em down on the farm? Delta will fly Indianapolis-Paris in 2018. (Image: Jim Glab)

Continuing with our route news updates, this time we’ll focus on transatlantic. Delta is adding a pair of non-hub routes to Europe and a new route to Africa; American will introduce some new routes to Europe next year but drop others; British Airways adds a U.S. gateway to Heathrow and some high-density 777 service to Gatwick; Lufthansa ends year-round San Jose flights; United makes an aircraft change on SFO-London; and Iceland’s WOW will fly to more U.S. cities;

Delta has set a May 24, 2018 start for new daily non-stop flights to Paris CDG from … Indianapolis? Yep. It’s not a hub, but Delta does operate 37 fights a day there and has a Sky Club as well. Another new non-hub route for Delta will be the only non-stop service between Orlando and Amsterdam, operating daily starting March 30 of next year. The airline will use 767-300ERs on both routes, with Delta One, Comfort+ and regular economy seating. Delta’s only other international route from Orlando is to Sao Paulo.

On March 24, 2018, Delta will kick off another transatlantic route, from New York JFK to Lagos, Nigeria. The carrier already flies to Lagos from Atlanta four times a week, and the JFK flights will operate three times a week (eastbound on Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday). That route will get an Airbus A330-200 with lie-flat Delta One seats as well as Comfort+ and regular economy.

Look for some changes in American Airlines’ transatlantic summer schedules next year. The airline has announced it will add new daily seasonal service May 4-October 27 from Philadelphia to both Prague and Budapest, using 767-300s; and from Chicago O’Hare to Venice with a 787-8. (American already flies to Venice from Philadelphia.) According to schedule updates in Routesonline.com, American also plans to add daily service starting March 25 from Philadelphia to Zurich, a route it last served in September 2016. Seasonal service getting the ax from AA next year, effective March 25, includes Boston-Paris, JFK-Zurich and JFK-Manchester.

British Airways will use a Dreamliner on its new route to Nashville. (Image: British Airways)

Nashville hasn’t had non-stop flights to London since the 1980s, but it will get them again on May 4, 2018, when British Airways is due to begin five flights a weekto Heathrow from the Music City with a 787-8 Dreamliner. Tennessee is reportedly offering BA incentives worth $1.5 million to fly the route. From Philadelphia, meanwhile, British Airways will boost its LHR schedule from seven flights a week to 10 starting in April with the addition of second departures on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays, also with a 787-8. And on May 8, BA will replace one of its two daily 747-400 flights between Chicago O’Hare and London with an Airbus A380 – the first regularly-scheduled A380 service at O’Hare.

British Airways has also been converting some of its 777-200ERs to a higher-density configuration to compete with low-cost competition like Norwegian from London Gatwick, and it will put the aircraft onto some U.S. routes next year. The three-class 777s will have 32 business class seats, 52 in premium economy and 252 in regular economy. They’ll fly once a week to Gatwick from Ft. Lauderdale starting September 13, daily from New York JFK beginning July 8, once or twice a week from Orlando as of May 11, and twice a week from Tampa starting June 7. BA will also beef up its Las Vegas service on March 27, adding three weekly Las Vegas-London Gatwick 777 flights a week to its 11 weekly LAS-LHR flights.

Lufthansa uses an A340-300 on its San Jose-Frankfurt route. (Image: BriYYZ/Wikimedia Commons)

The San Jose-Frankfurt non-stops introduced last year by Lufthansa will no longer operate year-round. The German carrier had been planning to keep flying the route five times a week, but now has decided to scrap the service for the winter. The SJC-FRA A340-300 flights will be suspended from October 29 through March 24.

Flying United from San Francisco to London? From October 28 through December 19, United plans to make an equipment change on the route. Instead of using 777-200ERs on both daily departures, it will switch one of them (UA900/901) to a 787-9.

Iceland’s ultra-low-cost WOW Air plans to add service from more U.S. cities next spring, offering four Airbus A321 flights a week to Reykjavik (with connections to lots of European cities) from Detroit starting April 26, from Cleveland May 4, from Cincinnati May 10 and from St. Louis May 17. The carrier will also begin Dallas/Ft. Worth service May 24 with three flights a week. One-way fares on the new routes will start as low as $99 (with plenty of extra fees for various amenities and services).

Delta’s A350s will debut its new Delta One business cabin later this year. (Image: Delta)

Last year, Delta unveiled plans for all-suite business class seating on the new Airbus A350s it will start putting into service later this year; and now it has revealed details for bringing the same new Delta One cabin layout to its existing fleet of 777-200s.

According to FlightGlobal, Delta said in a filing with the FAA that installing the business class suites in its 777s will shrink passenger capacity in the front cabin from the current 37 lie-flat seats to 28 mini-suites with lie-flat seats.

Delta hasn’t yet issued a schedule for reconfiguring its 18 777-200s, but when it does, it will also give the planes 48 new premium economy seats and 220 economy seats. They currently have 36 extra-legroom Comfort+ coach seats and 220 regular economy.

The airline has said that when it puts the new premium economy section into its A350s and 777s, Comfort+ seating will no longer be offered in them. The premium economy section will offer up to 38 inches of pitch, 19-inch seat width and up to seven inches of recline.

Delta’s premium economy cabin will also debut on its A350s. (Image: Delta)

And here’s some good news for economy travelers: A company official told FlightGlobal that when the 777s are remade, they will continue to offer nine-across seating in economy instead of going to 10-across like some of its domestic and foreign competitors are doing with their 777s.

Delta has ordered 25 A350-900s, but the airline said this week it will defer deliveries for 10 of them by two to three years, pushing them back to 2021-2023. The company also said it has increased its A321-200 order to 30 new planes, boosting the total from 82 to 112 for delivery by 2021. Those aircraft will replace older planes on domestic routes.

The airline said it is still on track to begin its first A350 flights in the fourth quarter of this year. The new wide-bodies are initially expected to fly on transpacific routes out of Delta’s Detroit hub.

If you’ve been hoping to book a final flight on a United 747 before the iconic jumbo jet is retired, you better start exploring your options before The Queen gets the boot.

Last year, United said it had set a target date of October 2018 to eliminate the remaining 747s from its fleet. But now that date has been moved up.

United President Scott Kirby said in a letter to employees this week that the company expects the final 747 flight to take place in the fourth quarter of 2017.

And the reason United is eager to remove the aging planes is largely economic. The 747 “once represented the state-of-the-art in air travel,” Kirby said. “Today, there are more fuel-efficient, cost-effective and reliable widebody aircraft that provide an updated inflight experience for our customers traveling on long-haul flights.”

Like United, Delta is starting to get rid of these graceful, gas guzzling old birds. (Photo: Delta)

United has been flying 747s since 1970. It is replacing its 747s with 777s and 787 Dreamliners on long-haul routes.

The earlier retirement of the planes will put United on a schedule similar to Delta’s, the only other U.S. carrier that still flies 747s. Delta also plans to get rid of its remaining 747s by the end of this year, replacing them with long-haul Airbus models including the A330 and the new A350.

It will be interesting to see whether Delta or United throws a better send off celebration. In today’s announcement, Kirby said, “we’ll honor the 747 with an unforgettable retirement celebration — we’ll keep you posted with more details on her final flight in the months ahead.”

We’ll be watching on that bittersweet day.

A fond farewell to Cathay’s Queen of the Skies at SFO in 2014 (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

Check out the waffle weave on Delta’s premium economy cabin which will debut on its A350s next year. (Image: Delta)

Last spring, a few months after American Airlines announced that it would put a new premium economy class of seating into its international fleet, Delta promised that it would do the same – but it offered no specifics except to say the product would debut on its new Airbus A350s. Well, today Delta unveiled the details of that new seating class.

Delta said the new cabin, called simply Delta Premium, will be introduced on select international A350 flights starting in fall of 2017; in 2018, Delta Premium will spread to the airline’s 777 aircraft, and “additional fleets may be added,” Delta said.

The new seating will provide “up to” 38 inches of pitch, 19 inches of seat width, and seven inches of recline, Delta said, along with adjustable leg and head rests and power ports. Seatbacks will have 13.3-inch high-res video screens, and Delta Premium passengers will get noise-canceling headphones, Westin Heavenly in-flight blankets and Tumi amenity kits.

Delta’s A350s will have 48 premium economy seats- this one is in the recline position note footrest (Image: Delta)

At the airport, Delta Premium customers will be offered a pre-departure beverage service and the benefits of the airline’s Sky Priority service – faster check-in and security screening, priority boarding and expedited baggage handling. There’s no word yet on the pricing premium that Delta will charge for the new seating category.

The new Delta Premium cabin will be distinct from and superior to the airline’s extra-legroom Comfort+ economy seats, which it started selling earlier this year as a separate fare category. Speaking of Comfort+, will that option still be there in between regular economy and Delta Premium seating? “Comfort+ will not be available on the A350,” a Delta spokeswoman told TravelSkills.

Delta said the A350s will have 32 Delta One suites, 48 Delta Premium seats in a 2-4-2 layout and 226 main cabin seats. These are the same planes on which Delta will introduce its new Delta One suites, which it calls “the world’s first business class cabin to feature a sliding door at each suite.”

Delta’s A350s will also debut the new Delta One business cabin. (Image: Delta)

This is a busy time for new international cabin classes on U.S. carriers. American’s new premium economy product will make its first appearance starting this week on the airline’s new 787-9s flying from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Madrid and Sao Paulo.

And in just a few weeks – starting December 1 – United’s new Polaris international business classis due to start appearing on its 777-300ERs, and United officials will cut the ribbon on a new Polaris business class lounge at Chicago O’Hare — the first of nine new lounges coming to the airline’s primary international airports.

Delta’s announcement leaves United as the only one of the U.S. Big Three international carriers that has not yet issued any plans to add premium economy seating to its long-haul fleet.

Cathay Pacific will switch to 10-across coach seating on the 777-300ERs it flies to the U.S. (Image: Cathay Pacific)

How can an airline increase passenger capacity when it can’t add more flights? One way is to add more seats in each aircraft, and we’re seeing that emerging as a trend in some carriers’ Boeing 777 fleets. The latest airline to announce such a change is Cathay Pacific, which flies 777-300ERs on its routes to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and New York JFK.

Cathay chief executive Ivan Chu Kwok-leung told the South China Morning Postthat the airline is faced with a shortage of takeoff and landing slots at its Hong Kong base, and the only way to boost revenue is by adding more seats per slot. So Cathay will start reconfiguring its 777 economy cabins from nine-across to 10-across seating, although the job might not be finished until 2018.

He said Cathay wants to preserve its 32-inch seat pitch, so it will shrink seat width from 18.5 inches to 17. He noted that 3-4-3 seating on Boeing 777s is becoming the “standard” among international carriers.

And he might have a point about that. Boeing has noted that about half of the 777s it delivered in 2015 were had 10-across coach seating; in 2008, only 30 percent had that configuration.

Among U.S. carriers, American has 10-across seating on some 777s, and United earlier this year confirmed it is installing the tighter configuration on 19 777s that it uses mainly for domestic routes. Delta currently has 9-abreast on its B777s.

Other international airlines with 10-across seating on at least some of their 777s include Emirates, Etihad, China Airlines, China Eastern, ANA, Air New Zealand, Swiss, KLM and Air France. A few months ago, Taiwan’s EVA Air said it would switch from nine-across to 10-across seating on its new 777s.

In December, American Airlines announced that it plans to start installing a dedicated premium economy class of service on its long-haul international flights. And now Delta is following suit.

Although the Atlanta-based carrier hasn’t yet issued a formal announcement, top executives said at a media event that an international premium economy cabin is definitely coming to Delta, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution – and they said it has been in the planning stages for two years.

They provided few specifics except to say that the premium economy class will be launched on the new Airbus A350s that Delta will start to receive in 2017, and then will be added to its 777 fleet. They stressed that the new section will be a big step up from the airline’s existing Comfort+ seating, which is basically regular economy seating with a few more inches of legroom.

Delta has ordered 25 A350-900s, and plans to deploy the first ones mainly on transpacific routes starting in the second quarter of next year.

According to the newspaper, the executives said the new premium economy section will offer different seats than Comfort +, with even more legroom, a leg rest, and higher levels of service and amenities. They did not mention whether Comfort+ will continue in the affected aircraft, but American plans to keep offering Main Cabin Extra seating in aircraft that will get its premium economy section.

The plans by Delta will put added pressure on United Airlines, the last of the Big Three U.S. legacy carriers that has not yet announced plans for premium economy on international routes.

No doubt Delta also felt compelled to get on board with premium economy so that it can offer customers a standardized product across its global partnerships; for example, both Virgin Atlantic and Air France already offer the extra cabin.

According to Seatguru.com, some 31 international carriers currently have a premium economy seating option, not counting the plans by American and Delta to add one.

United boosted its orders for new Boeing 737s for a total of 65. (Photo: Chris McGinnis)

As United Airlines puts more 787 Dreamliners onto international long-haul routes, it will remove 777s from some of those markets and reconfigure them with higher-density seating for domestic flights, according to USA Today.

The newspaper said United confirmed that the plan calls for 19 of its 777-200s to get an extra 20 seats, including nine planes that are already used domestically — mostly to Hawaii — and 10 coming off international service. By switching from nine-across, 2-5-2 seating in economy to 10-across in a 3-4-3 layout, the reconfiguration will boost the planes’ total seat count to 364, with 336 in coach and 28 in business class. Those extra dreaded middle seats will be 17 inches wide versus the current 18-inch width.

United’s current domestic 777-200 configured 2-5-2 in economy is used primarily for Hawaii flights (Image: United)

Other than Hawaii, the report didn’t indicate where the higher-density 777s might be used. It noted that American Airlines also has some 777s with 10-across seating, and so do some foreign airlines (such as Emirates); it also said that about half of the 777s Boeing delivered last year had 10-across economy seating. The work is expected to take a little over a year, and will also involve the installation of in-seat power ports and Wi-Fi for streaming entertainment. New business class seats will recline to a fully flat position. The new economy seats will also get mobile device holders for both tablets and phones, the newspaper said.

Meanwhile, United this week also announced plans to buy another 25 new 737-700s for delivery starting at the end of next year, in addition to the 40 it has already ordered. The company said the orders will help it move its fleet toward “larger, more efficient aircraft” as it continues to phase out 50-seat regional jets. “United expects to have fewer than 100 aircraft in its 50-seat fleet by the end of 2019,” a spokesman said.

The new 737-700s will feature larger overhead bins and the new “Boeing Sky” interiors with sculpted sidewall panels and LED cabin lighting with soothing colors.

Finally, United said it will move up the delivery dates for some additional widebodies – four 777-300ERs and five 787-9s – to start in 2017, in order to speed up the retirement of all remaining 747s from its fleet. Those 747s should all be gone by the end of 2018, United confirmed this week.

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Editor Chris McGinnis

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